Failure
by Niema Kazami
Summary: My body felt numb as I came to my senses. But when I finally understood what was happening I almost wished I did not see anything... A short story from the depths of Mint Eye. Rated M to be on the safe side.


_Dark...light...fuck, what's happening?_ My body was aching as I could barely force my eyes open to adjust to their surroundings. In the distance I noticed some light and I thought to feel a soft breeze on my skin. _**Bang.**_ A deafening sound boomed beside me and startled I turned towards its direction only to see the young woman fall off the chair. I did not have to strain myself in order to understand that she held a weapon in her hand and what she just used it for while blood spread on the floor. Frightened I glanced about the room only to notice how many people were actually here with me. Several women, hurdled together in small groups, sat on the concrete but none of them seemed even slightly as scared as me. All of them were eerily calm, some of them even smiled, as if I was the only one who witnessed the suicide that happened a minute ago. "W-what...", my throat was hoarse, "What is this?" "Oh? Are you back?", someone sang in an amused tone. It was the man who knelt right in front of me while gazing upon me with his mint coloured eyes. Slowly I managed to identify the area, it was a deserted car park but instead of cars it was filled with a mass of women, two men and me sitting on the cold floor.

Then I remembered. The treatment. His eyes were almost the same colour as this stuff they made me drink. This...drug. I shivered but for better or worse I did not recall the exact effect it had on me. "You can see me, right?" He tried to regain my attention, though it was not very difficult to notice him. He stood out like a sore thumb because against the grey area his pure white hair gleamed like freshly fallen snow. Even his voice offered the same coldness and I found nothing compassionate in his smile either. _**Bang.**_ Another boom and another thud of a body hitting the concrete. "What's going on?!", I cried hoarsely but then the girl next to me lay her hand on my shoulder. "Stay quiet. It's better this way."

While she stood up I tried desperately to recall what had happened but the last thing I knew of was drinking this 'elixir' and...I remembered screaming. And how I – I glanced at my right hand and saw its healing wounds – hurt myself. I fought back. A failure. Of course, the treatment did not work, they called me an incorrectable and- _**Bang.**_ Trembling I recognized the situation. All of us were failures, people who have not been controllable through that cursed liquid, and there was only one way for them to deal with that. I focused again on the chair on which after another woman dropped from it the new victim took place. With her eyes void of any emotion she looked upon the camera standing in front of her and paid only little attention to the laptop placed next to it on a small table. She took the gun lying on the ground and said with a startlingly calm voice: "Hereby I acknowledge that I am a disappointment. There is no happiness for me."

 _ **Bang.**_ "Mint...Eye...", I whispered and noticed the white haired man's satisfaction when I pronounced the name of his organisation. "Exactly...you wanted to come to us, right? To me, right? Do you remember? Do you recognize me?" Cautiously I nodded. I was certain that I knew him but I did not know why. He seemed so familiar to me but at the same time struck me as a total stranger. "You wanted to be together with me, right?" He sat down before me. "We all wanted to be happy together, right?" He slowly approached me by leaning towards me. Frightened I leaned back. "You liked me so much, don't you remember?!" He was leaning above me and panicking I kicked him as hard as I could. He fell back and with horror I awaited his reaction. But he simply sat up and grinned widely. _He has to be insane...he is one of them…_ Horrified I shifted my attention to his colleague, but he only swayed cheerfully from side to side while snickering about my reaction. _**Bang.**_ With joyful eyes he looked upon me and I noticed that his face was identical to the white haired man's. Twins? Or even clones? At this point I would have believed that and so much more. But what was certain was that the red haired one appeared to have fun in midst of this madness. "Hahaha, I think there is a meme befitting people like you", he laughed, "Brave in the chat but when things get serious you get scared and hesitate." Meme? His laugh, damn, I have definitely heard it before. But why did I not recognize him? Who was he? I Felt like he did not belong here like the rest of us. But it was too late now anyway. The death row continued as I watched the next girl pulling the trigger. _**Bang.**_ I saw her falling off the chair but then she slowly started crawling in our direction. "What the…!" She croaked some unintelligible words before touching the temple she shot through with shaking hands and collapsing. _Let it stop…! Please, no more!_ "You're insane." As I mumbled these words burning tears welled up for the first time. It was so surreal, like a bad dream you only wish to awake from. But instead I had to watch yet another taking place on the dreaded chair, reading out their two sentences before ending their life. There did not appear any order, without any instructions everybody went to the chair and did it, as naturally as breathing.

And I knew this was also my fate. There was no escape. Whether I went next or last, at one point I would sit on the cursed chair and shoot. I noticed how my hands started to get cold and blew on them. _What do I do? Wait?_ As if the others knew the answer I analysed the remaining women, but all of them wore the same blank expression which told of the inevitable. _**Bang.**_ _We are done for._ I became aware that I was responsible for ending up here because I had become involved with those two men. I remembered chatting with them through an app and that was what got me into this mess. Fleeing was not an option, I did not even want to think about the consequences if I tried to. So instead I stood up trembling and slowly made my way to the camera. _**Bang.**_ The girl fell on the floor and someone pulled her corpse away after a short time. I could not make out who because my gaze was fixed upon the empty and waiting chair. I sat down. I quickly glanced at the camera before I read the text displayed on the laptop. There was my name on it and the number 87 was filled in a column named 'elixir'. Was this the concentration of the drug I consumed? Was that high? All of the other numbers I saw were lower so I figure that they made me drink a lot of that stuff. Below the chart was a map of the car park, including an escape route. I could try, but what would happen? What would I have to suffer through if I attempted fleeing? In a trance I picked up the gun from the ground. Without contemplating any further I focused on the lines that were written on a plate right below the camera and read them out loud. "Hereby I acknowledge that I am a disappointment. There is no happiness for me." _**Bang.**_


End file.
